Lost and forgotten streets of Manchester nu 36 Newgate ..... less a street and more a court

Now I didn’t expect to find Newgate on the directories, even when this picture was taken in the 1890s the inhabitants of this closed court were part of that unseen Manchester.

Newgate, 1890

To get to Newgate you had to turn off Long Millgate and go through an entry in a building which then led off to other smaller courts.

But even here it ranked as an insignificant address for while Pearsons Court which was the neighbouring court got a listing as a direction point in the directories for Long Millage, Newgate didn’t even warrant that.

So to all intents and purposes it might as well not have existed.

But the maps show it there and show at least eleven properties and in time with a bit of digging I will find it on the census and that in turn will offer up the names of the residents, their ages occupations and families.

Newgate, 1849

For now the best that I can offer the curious is to direct them along Corporation Street heading north and just beyond Hanover Street under that very big white building will be Newgate and Pearson’s Court.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Newgates, 1908, m8316, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Manchester City Council, Newgate in 1849, from the OS for Manchester & Salford, 1843-49 courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

The Chorlton cinema story that went elsewhere ……

This was our first purpose-built cinema which was opened in 1914, in what had once been part of the large garden owned by the Holt family.

The Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928

The image was taken by the local photographer Charles Ireland in 1928 for the Lion Foundry Company.

Mr Ireland had studios in Manchester, lived briefly on High Lane in what is now the Buddhist Centre before removing to a large mansion on the corner of Edge Lane and Kingshill Road.

And the cinema, along with Mr. Ireland and the Holt’s often feature on the blog and yesterday I followed Charles Ireland and snapped a series of pictures of the former cinema being demolished and posted onto social media with the caption “Goodbye, cinema, repair shop and supermarket ... you served us well”.

It followed on from an earlier blog story, Goodbye Hanbury’s …. the Palais de Luxe .... and .... 408 Barlow Moor Road .... heaps of Chorlton change.*

Shopping at Hanburys, circa 1988

I expected memories of the Palaise de Luxe, Radio Rentals and the supermarket Hanbury’s which occupied the Picture House after the cinema went dark.  

I reasoned there might even have been the odd memory from those who remembered it when it was a Tesco.

What tumbled from the comments was a series of observations about the proposed new development.  Some were speculation about what might be built with others perhaps having done their homework becoming quite irate about more apartments in Chorlton.**

Now as someone who washed up here in 1976, I have no problem with “newcomers”, after all, historically Chorlton has always been a go to place since the early 19th century through to the great building boom of the 1880s into the 1900s, and again in the 1970s onwards.

Goodbye, cinema, repair shop and supermarket, 2023

Like many I question the quality and density of the new build and to my mind how pedestrian and ugly they look.  

Added to which despite the environmental issues most do not offer sufficient car park spaces which inevitably will mean a squeeze on street parking.

One development I recall argued in its planning application that because this was Chorlton the new residents would relinquish the car for the bike and public transport.  

All of which reads well and ticks the box of environmental concerns but is not always realistic.

So there you are, stories don’t always go as planned, and a fresh debate on housing provision has burst forth

Location Barlow Moor Road

Pictures; the Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928, Charles Ireland, GD10-07-04-6-13-01 courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Archives, Hanburys shopping bag, courtesy of Catherine Brownhill, “Goodbye, cinema, repair shop and supermarket ... you served us well”, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Goodbye Hanbury’s …. the Palais de Luxe .... and .... 408 Barlow Moor Road .... heaps of Chorlton change, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/08/goodbye-hanburys-palais-de-luxe-and-408.html

**097667/FO/2011/S1, Erection of a part 3/part four storey building to form a commercial use on the ground floor and 13 self-contained flats above, with associated car parking (5 spaces) and cycle storage, following demolition of existing property, Manchester City Council Planning Portal,  https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=LTKO3CBC06N00&activeTab=summary

Moonlight, Greenwich, 1904

The last of four picture postcards of Greenwich.

Moonlight, Greenwich by Professor Van Hier

Picture, Sunset, Greenwich, in the series, On the Thames, issued by Tuck & Sons, 1904, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

One out of two ain’t bad …. travels through a bit of history

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single cook in search of something new must have failures.*

So, there I was having successfully returned to making pesto when I went a pesto too far.

Green pesto is simple enough, just basil leaves, cheese, nuts and some olive oil to which I may or may not add a bit of garlic, depending on whom I am meeting.

Pretty much always a success.

And so emboldened by this minor culinary win, I went on to revisit my red pesto, which requires the addition of sundried or roasted tomatoes.

I went for roasted rather than sun dried simply because I didn’t fancy the walk to the shops and anyway, I had heaps of tomatoes.

All went well, the roasted tomatoes roasted well but having added them to the other ingredients it was less a red colour and more green.

Undaunted I roasted more tomatoes, threw them into the mix, whizzed again and created something which was no longer pesto but something else.

The grainy appearance from the leaves and tomatoes had become smooth, and the taste was sweeter with a hint of smoke.

All of which I guess was the fallout from using roasted tomatoes and over whizzing.

All of which in the story of cooking from home is just one of those things.

But again, it got me thinking of how dishes can become frozen in time and you have to follow the recipe to the letter when all through history what turns out on the table is a combination of seasonal availability, regional variation, cost and the whim of the cook.

So maybe no longer pesto but pleasant enough as an accompaniment to a bit of pasta and peas.

Would I have it again?  Possibly, but the chances that I could replicate it are slim.

So, one to put down to experience.

Location; Our kitchen

Pictures; Pesto Day, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Apologies to Jane Austen

Living beside the Medlock in the shadow of those tall railway viaducts ……… Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square

 I doubt I would ever have known about a row of terraced houses beside the River Medlock in the heart of the city and certainly would not have begun looking at them in detail if Andy Robertson hadn’t sent over a series of pictures of the Bridge Inn on Fairfield Street.

The pub was doing the business by 1840, and continued into the 20th century, although it is now closed.

But what really caught my interest was Andy’s pictures of the River Medlock which briefly comes out into the daylight as it crosses under Fairfield Street before descending back into a tunnel.

And as you do I went looking for the story of this patch of land between the river and the pub, and was not disappointed.  

In 1848, there were twenty-four properties of which 14 appear to have been back to back houses along with another ten.

Some faced directly onto the river , and the rest were grouped around Coronation Square, which I suspect offers up a possible date for their construction which I am guessing must have been around 1837.  And this I think will be confirmed by the fact that the fourteen back to backs were called Victoria Terrace.

I will  go looking into the Rate Books to see how far back I can trace the houses, but for that I need the names of some of the residents, and sadly back in the middle decades of the 19th century, no one deemed them worth enough to be included in the directories.

And that in turn has made it difficult to unearth the relevant census returns for the period.

However by dint of a tedious trawl of the 1891 census for the Central Enumeration district for 1891 I struck lucky, and found all twenty four.

They were a mix of four, three and two roomed properties, and were home to 71 people.  There was evidence of overcrowding, with the eight members of the Younger family squeezed into four rooms, and Mr. Thomas Nagle sharing his three rooms with his cousin and three lodgers.

Most of the occupants were unskilled workers, ranging from labourers to  street peddlars, although amongst them there were also a tailoress, a shoemaker  an Assistant Mathematical Instrument Maker.

But most were engaged in precarious and heavy work with more than a few heading towards their sixties.  

One of these was Thomas Nagle who at 56, described himself as a Bricklayer’s labourer, although in his case he appears to have left the building trade behind, because in 1895 he is listed as a greengrocer trading from Coronation Square.

There is much more to do, including examining the ages of the residents and working out the balance of adults to children as well as where the 71 came from.

Some at least of the properties were being demolished by the early 20th century and there are two pictures from the Local Image Collection showing some of the houses.

All of which promises to offer up more of the lives of those who lived beside the Medlock in the shadow of those tall railway viaducts, just a step away from Fairfield Street

Location; Manchester

Pictures, detail of Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square, 1851, from Adshead’s map of Manchester, 1851, courtesy of courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ , some of the properties in 1903, A. Bradburn, m11495, and in 1904, m11492, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Victoria Terrace and Coronation Square, 2020, from the collection of Andy Robertson

A lost house, an old bridge ..... and a scene that has passed out of living memory, Barlow Moor Road in the summer of 1909

Barlow Moor Road Bridge, 1909

We are looking at a stretch of Barlow Moor Road that has now passed out of living memory.  The picture was taken in 1909 and captures a time when we were still a little rural.

Away to our right across the Brook and over the fields is  half hidden by the trees is Lime Bank Cottage.

Sadly the building to our left has not survived which is a shame because it is one of those that would have unlocked a bit of our history.

It was built sometime between the late 1780s and 1818 and was a fine nine  roomed house set in a large garden and orchard with views across the fields. 

Brook Bank House

In the 1840s it commanded a rateable value of £58 which put it amongst one of the most expensive properties in the township.  And throughout its history the occupants appear to have been well heeled.

In 1841 Elizabeth Whitelegg described herself as of “independent” means, while her son was a cotton dealer.  

A decade later the Heywwod brothers and sisters were also able to rely on an inherited income, and at the time of our picture, William Henry Foxwell owned his own engineering export business.

This makes Brook Bank important in the story of Chorlton.  There were only handful of these comfortable properties in the township and today only two have survived of which one lies empty with half its roof missing.

And given that all the homes of working people from the first half of the 19^th century have also vanished this just leaves a few of the farm houses of which only two come close to resembling the originals.

Across the fields with Hough End Hall in the distance

Which leaves us just this tantalizing glimpse through the trees of Brook Bank on a summer’s day in 1909.

But that is not quite the end of the story.

We are on Barlow Moor Road just before the bridge was rebuilt and for all its idyllic appearance the road and the surrounding land was about to be transformed.

Already the developers and builders had been busy. Just behind our house and only partly hidden by a green house and out houses were the semi detached properties of Claude and Reynard Road, while to the north a line of tall houses stretched up to Beech Road and beyond the Brook plans were a foot to construct Chorltonville.

Picture; Barlow Moor Road Bridge, J Jackson, 1909, m17447, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council

Walking through Eltham with Darrell Sprurgeon, ... Well Hall

Returning to the series featuring Discover Eltham.*

I am a great fan of Discover Eltham, so much so that I have two copies, and both are now battered and in need of tender care.

But that is what happens with guide books, if you use them it will show.

Sadly both the 1992 and 2000 editions are out of print and so here are short extracts from the book and the walks you can do.

Well Hall forms section F and is a gentle stroll from the Tudor Barn, up past the Coronet Cinema and the Church of St Barnabus through the Progress Estate and on to The Martyrs Church taking in the memorial to Stephen Lawrence.

Well Hall, 69, an attractive and fascinating building now called the Tudor Barn as well as the moat walls, a bridge and some gardens have survived from the grounds of the Tudor mansion of well Hall: all are now set in a pleasant park.

The state goes back to at least the 13th century.  In the early 16th century a mansion called well Hall was built by the Roper family on the moated site of an earlier house and some medieval structures may have been retained.  In 1733 the estate was purchased by Sir Gregory Page to add to his already extensive Wricklemarsh estate at Blackheath.  He demolished the Tudor house and built a large new mansion on the other side of the moat to the east.

The house was occupied by a succession of people some more famous than others and finally from 1899 to 1933 by the children’s writer Edith Nesbit.  

The house was badly damaged by a fire in 1926, and the whole site was acquired by the then Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1929, to become the Well Hall Pleasaunce.

Nothing remains of the 16th century mansion bit the moat with its largely Tudor brick banks and the Tudor stone arched bridge to the east have survived.(69a)  There is a modern wooden bridge over the moat to the west.

Substantial sections of the original Tudor garden walls to the south have been preserved; in the westernmost walls five triangular headed niches (some blocked) which may have been bee-boles, can be seen.

The Tudor Barn (69b & 69c) now a pub, was part of the original Tudor complex of buildings.  Its original purpose is unknown but it was probably not a barn.  It is a well preserved redbrick building, facing the site of the main mansion across the north arm of the moat, an extension to the moat run along the west side of the building.  A coat of arms on the north side front bears the date 1568, but it is generally considered to date from earlier in the 16th century.

Original features include the patterned black brick, the chimneys stacks at the west end and the rectangular mullioned windows (some blocked) at the east end; the windows at the west end are 17th century.  On the east wall the monogram WR (William Roper) and Edith Nesbit’s bell can be seen.

The white column by the lawn facing the entrance is a sundial of 1941.

The interior is worth viewing especially for the Tudor fireplaces on both floors.  On the ground floor note at the west end an original Tudor brick fireplace, and a section of distinctive stone and pebble tiled floor (which was imported later).  The upper floor is dominated by the exposed rood timbers.  

Note the west end  an original Tudor red brick fireplace, and on the south side a wall a later Tudor stone fire place with fine carving.  

In the west wall is a stained glass window showing Thomas More and his daughter Margaret Roper, designed after Holbein’s portrait by Margaret Cowel 1949.

Next;  Coronet Cinema and the Church of St Barnabus through the Progress Estate and on to The Martyrs Church taking in the memorial to Stephen Lawrence.

* Discover Eltham and its Environ, Darrell Spurgeon, Greenwich Guide Books, 2nd edition 2000

Pictures; map from Eltham and its Environ,, remaining images courtesy of Scott MacDonald